Nocturnio (6.8.9973 AS)
After the principal’s speech about how knowledge being power and that power is needed to protect the ones one loves, the children were separated into classes.
A teacher would walk up to the podium and name students from their list. Once all the named students were gathered on the stage they would leave the assembly hall with the teacher and go to their respective classroom.
The most important criteria for the teacher while forming the classes had been the age of the children. The reason was because many of the children coming to the Guardian Academy were homeschooled till they managed to pass the test to unseal their magic. This homeschooling included not only book knowledge but also physical education. Therefore, the older students would have a more developed body which meant an advantage over the young geniuses who had passed because of their talent and not just because of their education. Also, older students often didn’t accept that the younger students were on the same mental level as them and would bully them using their superior physique.
Six classes had already been formed. The ten years old Ernesti had been already been called to join class four. Tristan looked around and realized there were himself included only seven students left in the assembly hall. He saw a young woman walking up to the stage and taking out a list. The woman started reading the names on the list. Tristan was the last one to go on the stage.
On the stage Tristan was reunited with Laura and Abigail. Tristan searched through the second floor of the assembly hall. He finally spotted Dolores and Nana who were waving at them. He told Laura to wave back at them.
“Class seven is complete sir!” said the teacher towards the principal. She bowed a little towards him and started walking towards the exit of the assembly hall. “I’ll lead them to their new classroom. Follow me!” She said almost screaming towards the children with a very happy smile.
Tristan and his new classmates followed the blonde woman, who was wearing a greenish, blue suit. As they followed her through the corridors to their classroom the woman began talking like a machine gun. “I hope you are all enjoying your first day here at the academy?!” she asked with an euphoric voice.
“You know this is an elite school, right? There is no better place for you to learn everything you’ll gonna need in life than here, right?! There is also no safer spot on the continent than the Guardian Academy! You see, those thick walls aren’t just for show. Even if Lunae were to send their strongest army, they wouldn’t be able to leave this fortress.” ‘Doesn’t she mean, take this fortress?’ Tristan wondered, but the woman continued talking nonstop, so he couldn’t say anything.
“Yes! The fortress that is this school is impenetrable! Of course we have to make sure you turn out to be great students, who can help to defend this fortress if something were to happen!” She saw the fear in the face of Abigail, Laura and the other two girls walking beside them. “Yeah, but that’s probably never gonna happen! I mean it’s been almost ten millennia since the ‘Great War’ and those birds aren’t stupid enough to attack us mighty demons!” she added quickly and tried to change the topic .
“You are all just too cute! You know, you guys are the first class I’m the homeroom teacher for! I was really worried when they said I had to look after a first year class. Who would have guessed they would give me the genius’ class! I guess I must be blessed by Fors! For a newbie like me to be in charge of the best class, that’s unheard of!” The blonde gave a radiant smile.
Much to Tristan’s relief they had reached their destination. ‘I wouldn’t be able to handle one more minute of her endless cackle!’ Tristan thought. They entered the small classroom. Tristan claimed a seat on the second row in between Laura’s and Abigail’s seats. Because they were a small class there were only two rows with seats. The first row had been taken by the four other children so Laura, Abigail and Tristan didn’t have much of a chance of sitting in the back row.
“Well, well. Has everybody managed to get a seat? … So let’s start, yay!” The young blonde said enthusiastically. “So let’s start with introductions! I’m Lina Doctri. I will be your homeroom teacher for the next three school years. As you probably noticed I’m fairly new at this profession… Before deciding to become a teacher, I served for four years in a base in Terra as a vice-captain.” She said and pointed at the black-haired girl sitting in the first row. “Now you please introduce yourself to us!”
The black-haired girl stood up. “I’m Annemarie Explo, but you all can call me Ann. I’m seven years and thirty one days old.” Annemarie looked around very proud. “The Explo family is a side family of the Zerstörung clan. Therefore, I was blessed with ‘Chaos Magic’ as passive. My active on is ‘Explosion’” she sat down signalizing she was done with her introduction.
The glasses wearing girl next to Ann stood up. “I’m Seria Lucifer, I guess you can all call me Seria, I’m seven years and twenty five days old.” She grinned at Ann. “Since I belong to the Lucifer family, a side family of the Schatten clan, I inherited ‘Shadows Magic’ as passive. My active is ‘Telekinesis’.” She sat down.
The boy next to Seria stood up. “I’m Richard Lucifer. I’m the twin brother of Seria. My passive is also ‘Shadows Magic’ and my active is called ‘Absolute Zero’. He sat down, giving the blonde boy next to him the chance to introduce himself.
“Erm…- I- I’m Leo Luci. I’m seven years and forty days old. My family is a side family of the Lucifer family, so… we kinda also belong to the Schatten clan... I- I was also blessed with ‘Shadows Magic’ as a passive and my active is ‘Heal’. The boy sat down.
After Leo’s introduction Tristan looked a little sad. Even someone out of the side family of a side family had inherited ‘Shadows Magic’ as a passive, but he hadn’t. Just because of Bella. She had decided how his life would play out before it had even started.
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Abigail stood up. “I’m Abigail Letum. I’m six years and twenty one days old. Since I’m a year younger than most of you here, please take care of me” she proclaimed proudly. ‘Why are they so proud of their age?’ Tristan thought after having noticed the other had been having a competition on who was younger. The girls and boys from the front row looked shocked all of them had the same question on their minds ‘How could someone so young pass that test?’ “I’m an Elder” Abigail continued. “So I only have ‘Archive’ as my active.” She finished and sat down.
“Don’t be ridiculous, how could an Elder younger than I have passed that test?” Richard interrupted. “You know, that test, is a test of you mind. Moreover, people with ‘Archive’ as active ability have to have a really strong mind, not to go mad with all that information they have to store in their brains. And also what about if she is an Elder or not? In front of Fors we are all mortals!” Miss Doctri said with a strong voice. She pointed at Tristan “You there, continue!”
“Erm,… ok.” Tristan started, still sitting on his chair. “I’m Tristan Halblicht. I’m five years and twenty two days old.” Everyone but Laura was shocked. Even though Abigail had already heard Tristan was five years old, she thought Tristan was just about to turn six. She had never expected him to be that young. Richard was about to say something, but Seria stopped him. Tristan continued. “My active is ‘Rüsten’ and my passive is ‘All Knowing’. Tristan lied, but it couldn’t be helped. He had already decided to hide his real powers. “No real passive and a crappy active, pathetic” Ann whispered, Richard and Seria could barely suppress their laughs.
“I… I’m Laura Verheerung! Nice to meet you all! I hope we can be all friends with each other! I’m also five years old, but I’m seventeen days older than Trist here” she pointed at Tristan. “My passive is ‘Chaos magic’ and my active is ‘Gravity Smash’” Laura smiled and sat down again. Ann inspected Laura mumbled “Never heard of the Verheerung family” and looked back towards Miss Doctri.
“Very nice, nice to meet you all, once again! I really hope you all can get along with each other, since you will be spending the next six years in this very same class!”- “Excuse me” Tristan said. “I thought we would be only spending three years in this class.”-“Well, yes and no. You know, a school years is equivalent to two normal years! So if we say you will be spending three school years in this class, in reality you will be spending six years in this class.” Miss Doctri smiled. ‘How come no one ever told me this?’ Tristan thought.
“It seems you don’t know how the school system works yet. So let me explain!” Miss Doctri said overjoyed. She clapped with her hands a mountain of papers appeared in front of her. She pointed at it with a big smile. “This is your curriculum till your fourth year.”
She clapped again and two piles of papers appeared. “If you decide to go to the military branch, this will be your curriculum” she pointed at the small pile of papers. “If you decide to go to the political branch, you’ll have to learn all this” she pointed at the large pile. “But don’t get fooled! In both courses you’ll have to invest a lot of time studying to pass. It is just that the things taught in the political branch are more on a theoretical basis while the things you learn at the military branch are more practical. Also both courses last for four school years, which are eight normal years.”
She clapped again and three sheets appeared. “Depending on what you decide on studying in our university you will have different things to learn, these papers here contain the amount of courses you can choose from in at our university. If you decide for one of those subjects you’ll have to spend three school years at the university till you receive your degrees. Most people take four to five school years, though to get their degrees.” She looked like she realized she shouldn’t have said that. “Anyways, right now you don’t have to worry about it! You still have so much time to consider things and you never know what will happen in the future.” She waved with her hands and mountains of papers disappeared.
‘Interesting, so I will be twenty five when I’m out of the university…’ Tristan thought.
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Ernesti was eating with his classmates in the canteen. Like the other classes his class had decided to eat together to get to know each other better. Class four wasn’t an exception. All classes had the same plan. All classes but class seven.
Ernesti saw Abigail sitting with Laura and Tristan. Ernesti was relieved when he saw her interacting with other people. He knew how haughty his little sister could be, despite the fact she was an Elder and younger than most of the students. Therefore, he had expected her to be all alone during lunch time.
When Ernesti had seen Tristan and Laura this morning he came up with a plan to ensure her sister wouldn’t become a loner for the next years. He knew they were almost as young as her, so he had introduced them to each other. His father had told him the teachers would build the classes only paying attention to the age of the students. His father had done this to convince him to enroll the school last year already and not to wait for his sister, but he couldn’t convince Ernesti. This morning Ernesti had pretty much ensured that his sister would have a social life at school.
This week only first years were around on campus, so they had the spacious canteen for themselves. Ernesti had soon noticed that the only class that wasn’t eating as a class was class seven. ‘Is it because Abbigail?’ he asked himself. From where he was sitting he could see how the other four students of class seven had been staring at the trio.
When everybody in his class was done with their meal, they all decided to return to their classroom. Ernesti did split up from them for a while and went to Abigail to check if everything was ok. “And? How was your day so far?” he asked while talking towards the trio. Tristan looked up and answered “Nothing special”- “Yeah, nothing special we just did the introductions and chose a class representative, what about you big bro?” Abigail answered. “Same for us thus far” Ernsti said. “Well, if everything is ok, I’ll be taking my leave.” Ernesti turned around and hurried back to his class.
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In the afternoon Ms. Doctri had repeated with them some questions of the test they had taken in the temple. She made sure to underline that magic isn’t to hurt fellow Demons but to defend against the Seraphs. She also made sure to let them know that magic didn’t make them all mighty. She had finished her lecture about the meaning of magic with the words “In the end we are all mortals.”
Now Tristan was walking home with Laura. All awkwardness from the incident at the zoo had disappeared over the day. Now they were able to hold a proper conversation again with each other. “What do you think about the people in our class?” Laura asked Tristan. “Dunno, the only one I could talk with was Abigail. I think she is a kind girl, but a little bit arrogant.” Tristan replied. He hadn’t paid much attention to his classmates, he had been busy thinking how to make the big money so he could start training seriously.
“I also think Abigail is a nice girl. But you know the others don’t seem to be nice. During lunch, they were staring at you and Abigail. I especially dislike that Explo girl. The way she looked at me during the introductions was very creepy. She also mumbled something back then, so I’m positive she is a no good person.” Laura explained. ‘I didn’t expect her to pay so much attention to her surroundings’ Tristan thought. He smiled at her “Don’t worry if they want to hurt you or Abigail I will throw them into a cage with a Frost beast.”-“Hey! That’s not funny!” Laura responded and chased after Tristan who tried to run away from her.